I've been advised not to buy a cribber what do you think?

The advice not to buy a cribber is common, widespread, and worth examining honestly rather than accepting or rejecting without understanding what is actually true about cribbing and what is assumption or myth. The concerns about cribbing are real but frequently overstated, and the practical impact of cribbing on a horse's athletic usefulness and daily management varies considerably depending on the individual horse and the specific management situation. Cribbing is a stereotypy — a repetitive behavior that once established is neurologically self-reinforcing and essentially impossible to eliminate entirely. The horse grips a fixed surface with his upper incisors, contracts the muscles of his neck, and draws air into his esophagus in a motion that releases endorphins and creates a genuine physiological reward. This reward mechanism is why cribbing is so persistent and why management tools — cribbing collars, surface treatments, environmental changes — reduce the frequency of cribbing in many horses but rarely eliminate it completely. The legitimate concerns about buying a cribber are worth stating clearly. Cribbing causes abnormal wear on the upper incisor teeth that can become significant over time and may require ongoing dental management. There is a genuine association between cribbing and an increased risk of certain types of colic. Cribbing causes property damage to any wood surface the horse can access. And cribbing collars must be managed consistently and can cause skin irritation at the throatlatch with long-term use. What the advice not to buy a cribber frequently overstates is the impact on the horse's athletic performance and daily usefulness. The vast majority of cribbers are perfectly functional athletes — they work, they compete, they perform at high levels in their disciplines — and the cribbing behavior itself does not meaningfully impair their athletic capacity. A horse is not a less rideable, less trainable, or less capable partner because he cribs. The honest answer is that buying a cribber involves accepting specific management realities in exchange for access to a horse whose price may reflect those factors. A exceptional horse that happens to crib may be a far better choice than a lesser horse without the habit. Whether that trade is acceptable depends entirely on the individual buyer's management situation, risk tolerance, and the specific horse's other qualities.